UK’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband [blog] will be calling today for zero-carbon cars by 2030 during a speech in Bruges, according to the Guardian. This is an ambitious target which is not likely to get much applause in car industry circles as the sector is fighting hard to prevent future EU laws that would force them to reduce CO2 emissions of new cars to 120g/km by 2012.

Especially German car makers seem to be determined to counter the “green cars” trend, as reported in a new study presented by EU green lobbying group Transport and Environment (T&E). The report shows that the average new car in Germany produced more carbon dioxide in 2006 than in 2005. To their defence, car makers say that consumers are asking them to build heavier and safer cars and that this has implications for their cars’ carbon footprint.